Despite a DSCC-commissioned poll showing that Dem Rep. Peter DeFazio was running ahead of hyper-vulnerable GOP Senator Gordon Smith, DeFazio tells The Oregonian today that he won't make the race.

In another indication of Smith's vulnerability, the incumbent Senator was the only Republican in the Senate to vote for a Harry Reid-sponsored resolution on Iraq a few weeks back. But that and the DSCC poll weren't enough to persuade DeFazio to give up his slot on "a powerful House Transportation subcommittee responsible for doling out hundreds of billions of dollars of highway funding," the paper says.

"This was not an easy decision," DeFazio said. "You don't get a poll that shows you're ahead of an incumbent senator and generous offers of support from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and just blow it off. It was a long and serious deliberation on my part."